Monday, January 05, 2009

Colonials win at the ARCC

Trying to find a positive in Mount St. Mary's 77-70 loss to Robert Morris if you're a Mountaineer fan is like searching for a needle in a haystack. A real big haystack.

The Mount played very well for the first ten to twelve minutes of the game held a 26-15 lead with about 7 or 8 minutes left in the first half. They went to the weave on offense and that was about it.

The Colonials, to their credit, carved their way back into the game by getting the Mount bigs in some foul trouble and by halftime had the lead whittled to five at 33-28. A big Colonial run to start the second half saw the visitors build a lead that one point expanded to as many as 11. The Mounties tried to rally but some porous foul shooting and not enough defensive stops led to the Mount's third league loss in as many tries.

The Mount plays hard and works their tails off on defense. But the offense doesn't have enough fluidity to it and the efficiency falls as a result. There are too many times that the offense is catching and holding. As a result, there are a lot of times where the best shots don't come for the Mount.

This team still has as much talent as anyone it will play in the Northeast Conference. But it has now spotted the field a three-game lead. Near perfection will be necessary to catch this field, and at this point a simple league win would be a start.

I was impressed with the Colonials and their interior presence. Ron Robinson is a player, particularly at this level. And I thought Dallas Green rebounded very well, particularly offensively, but seemed to be in Rice's doghouse for unknown reasons. He didn't play very much. Jeremy Chappell is still the class of the Colonials and he got his points, but I thought Jean Cajou did a fairly nice job on him. But you can't give him an inch or he'll take advantage of it. And with him and the other two guards, along with the two post players it does present matchup problems for the Mount.

I'm going back Thursday night, but I heard others who said they weren't. That's what expectations do when you don't meet them.

About thefanblog

The Mount FanBlog is hosted by Ryan Raffensperger a CPA in Gettysburg, PA - Raffensperger, Martin & Finkenbiner, LLC . The firm was started by his father, a Mount grad, and has served customers in SouthCentral PA and Northern Maryland for 40+ years.

The younger Raffensperger has loved the Mount as long as he can remember, which basically means 1981 - and remembers the true #GloryDays of Memorial Gym. He remembers the players from those days to the athletes who play at Knott Arena today. And if it's a #MountMayhem day, it's going to be a good day.

He holds a Syracuse University degree in broadcast journalism. He has broadcast high school, college & minor league of all sports in his past, and regularly covered high school football for his home town paper. So the blog does make a little sense.

The blog was at one point much more active, but the advent of Twitter (follow @themountfanblog) has made writing a little less important. But he hopes that the balance swings back in favor of more traditional content soon.